Youth vulnerabilities to STI/HIV and to dating violence: evaluating a human rights based psychosocial intervention

Abstract

Teenagers are disproportionately impacted by the epidemics of STIs, HIV and syphilis in Brazil. Although human rights-based sexuality education has been a key part of the interventions that have controlled the growth of the AIDS epidemic in Brazil for more than a decade, sexuality education is facing a critical backlash. Ensuring the sexual and reproductive health of young people demands urgent innovation and reconceptualization of what makes sustainable and effective sexuality education programs, and evaluation of the processes through which they can make a difference and be effective. Our project focuses on a Multicultural Human Rights Sexuality Education program based on articulated interventions in public high schools and health centers in the school territory. A two-arm cluster randomized trial (CRT) and a qualitative process assessment will evaluate our intervention. The intervention study will involve students in 20 public high schools (10 schools in the control group and 10 schools in the intervention group) and 10 primary health care centers. This mixed methods intervention study intends to show an increase in safer sex and a decrease in sexual and gender violence and rights discrimination among the participant students, approximately 3500 first graders (14-16 years olds), followed for almost two years. Permanent participation of the school, community and health professionals is a crucial component of combination prevention to facilitate high school students' access to condoms and other contraception tools, emergency contraception, Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), and testing and treatment for STIs. A multi-institutional and highly experienced interdisciplinary research team - NEPAIDS-USP and its international collaborators - will develop the study in Sorocaba and Santos/Guarujá, two medium-sized cities in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AU)